Buying secondhand

[CortinaDave]

The £250 MG ZS i bought last november needed a set of brake pads when i bought it. Otherwise all i had to do was adjust the headlights for its MOT and knock up 12000 happy 40plus MPG miles.

 

The ZT ive got now was £425 and a month in has yet to give any problems. Im hopeful i can get an easy year out of it too.

 

The last of line MG Rover stuff is as cheap as it gets now and theyre actually pretty decent.

 

I raise a glass to all those who avoid them in fear of daily head gasket failure, because it means theyre worthless and i get them for next to nothing.

 

Never had to do a HG yet.

[Kiltox]

Before I bought my second ZX, I was going to purchase my mums 55 plate C3. I got a chance to test drive it a week or so earlier and was kind of put off by the vague feeling that came across. And the fact it's been pummelled by a loose stone road for over a year, day in, day out.

She's the only owner its ever had but the service history hasn't exactly been riddled with replacement parts, I am certain it's on cam belt number 1 still!

Never had an FTP though, despite. Blew a few fuses and had the exhaust strap rot off (standard C3 apparently), but nothing else. Modern Citroen in bulletproof shocker? Or just pure luck?

Anyway, apparently I might be tasked to sell it come October/November. I will make the advert as non BS as possible. I think a lot of adverts for used cars aren't forthcoming enough with faults, if you are honest you may find you don't get as much, but surely that's better than people constantly viewing it and walking away?! I wouldn't be happy with someone coming round and calling me a liar for not talking about crap tyres and damaged trim.

Can't get enough C3s - if you want a good trade offer for it when the time comes give me a shout

[cort16]

Just stay away from the C3 auto's

[Bobthebeard]

what you need to do is buy a car from a shiter

True!

My MG ZT was bought from here. Cost £375. Have fitted a stainless exhaust system, replaced all the discs and pads, repaired the broken bits and pieces, cleaned and re fitted the carpets, bought, but not yet fitted the new timing belts, tensioner, waterpump etc. Machine polished the paintwork and ordered a new set of tyres. The car now looks superb IMHO. Cost to date £980.

[fatharris]

Most expensive was the Pima at £1040, caused me no end of snags. Herman is next at £1000 and I'll never part with him because he's brilliant.

 

Generally, the cheaper cars have been the best, with Herman being the outlier.

[LessThanEqual]

My £1100 car has needed: 4 tyres (rears were okay tread wise but were of the ditchfinder variety and also mega loud) at £260 for Rainsport 3s, front tracking for £50!!!! (F1 Autocentres can go burn for all I care), various service bits for £50ish, a timing belt and water pump at £150 fitted through someone I know, an MOT for £40 which miraculously it passed with no advisories, two sets of front wipers as one set was stolen, a rear wiper, and sometimes in the cold and damp it goes into limp mode though it is rare. In all honesty I should've walked away but I was desperate as I sold my old car unexpectedly and had nothing to move my insurance onto. Reckon I would've been better off with a Gumtree Astra.

 

Lesson learned? Buy cheap, don't rush. There are hundreds of gr8 cars for pennies if you look around.

[Jazoli]

I spent £1500 on my mk2 focus, then spent £700 getting it spot on, it drives exactly like the 2012 model I drove last week, so whats the point in dropping £6k on a newer model only to stress about it getting damaged and depreciating.

 

I have had company cars and vans for years but have always had a snotter or two, some good, some bad, we have just recently bought a 2 year old Polo for the missus (as her company insists on a certain type of car if taking an allowance) and whilst its ok I don't like the fact its been dinged twice already and that I'll have to spent money on putting it right to help maintain its value, or that it could drop a big bill on us and will have to be fixed, unlike a snotter which you could just scrap, it also does not drive as well as the Focus which is probably worth 1/5th of the value, I'm not a fan of new cars unless someone else is paying for it.

[Parky]

I would buy a car from anyone on here because you know what you are getting. It will either be a heap that has been brought back to scratch, or a plain and simple heap. Either way it will be honest with varying degrees of heap DNA.

 

And even if it should be a disastrous purchase there will be no end of advice, assistance, offers to help or to kill it with fire on here, it's kind of an informal support / legal / therapy service this place

[eddyramrod]

I second the advice to Buy From A Shiter.  Any Shiter.  I've had cars from several now and have no complaints.  However: I will add that it's worth making friends with someone at your local garage/s, who might just have a cheap PX bargain if you ask.  I've had two this way, both documented on here, and both moved-on to Shiters.  1997 Pug 406 and 2002 Vectra.  Neither was anything to write home about, they were just plain family cars that nobody else wanted because they had big engines (2.0 and 2.2).  But both were perfectly adequate, and having the big engines meant I could make my commute a bit entertaining.  Bonus!

 

Our Blob cost 2k + the horrible old Chevy Blazer (you'll remember that...) and given that it's now coming up on 9 years old, is still a lovely little car.  Crucially, MrsR still likes it.  It survives on occasional servicing and regular doses of unleaded, and just keeps passing MoTs, so there's no sensible reason to get rid.  We owe nothing on it.  We will very likely keep it till it dies.  Trouble is, being a modern, that could happen any time in the next hour!  It's certainly outlived its design-life.

 

My other two were ebay purchases.  I've just realised that for all I've said, none of my cars has come from another Shiter!  Perhaps I should do something about that, when my finances recover from two weeks off-sick.  If they ever do.

[sierraman]

I'd be like a man on the edge if I bought a new car. Where I live it'd be a matter of days before it was scratched or had the door mirrors broken off.

[Parky]

That's a horrid feeling. You never forget the first scratch on your new pride and joy and it ruins the whole experience

[Snipes]

My best cars have been the cheapest, though probably through dumb luck than any smarts on my part. I'd have a really hard time justifying more than about £800 on a car now, especially anything made after about 2000-ish as they just all seem so shit.

 

That's probably why the Opel Manta/ RWD Corolla GT/ RWD Turbo Nissan world has left me behind. I don't really mind anymore. 

[Lacquer Peel]

My Caddy was £900, way over my usual budget but it's been brilliant for over 20k in 10 months, it's just needed some consumables.

It's flagging a bit now but it's still reliable.

[lisbon_road]

Can't beat the Astra I recently bought from Rob T on here.  Â£175, very clean, drives superb, body looks like its never been to Sainsburys.  Recent exhaust, cambelt and pump.  What more could you want?

[carlo]

The main reason I won't spend over a grand is that you have to really repair the bastard thing when it goes wrong, and cars over a grand are usually ones where things started getting very expensive to repair.  I can't think of anything worse than spending £2K then facing a £700 bill for something stupid.  Far better to have a £2k budget, spend £700 and leave the rest to maintain it for a while.

 

I've been spending a month trying to find something smallish and automatic for Mrs_Carlo now the Kia's gone back but it's been depressing; there's nothing I can find down here that fits the bill.  Think she's going to end up in the spare STI auto 405, it's starting to grow on her.  I know I'll find nothing better.

[New POD]

I saw a £4K SL500 V8 the other day for sale privately, not more than a mile from me. Obviously a £70K car when new. WCPGW ?

 

Someone at work has an S8 4.2 V8 Quattro that he has part ownership of, after a 'lads trip' to Nurburgring (If I understand it, 20 of them went in 5 different V8's all bought "cheap" ) - I've asked him for a price. If it's less than £1000 I might just do something stupid. again WCPGW ?

 

Or better http://autoshite.com/topic/25315-the-big-clearout/page-1  There is a 3.2 MV6 I am tempted to buy.  My wife has understandable concerns. Maybe I should just hide the Astra somewhere just in case I need it ?

[SiC]

Running costs is what is the killer on them. See Bentley Brooklands.

 

E.g. SL500 has special pricey coil packs and 2 plugs per cylinder. Also has electrical faults that are expensive. ... Unless your willing to fix them yourself, then they're bargains!

 

S8 is likely more than 1k, because Audi with a S in the name. Unless shagged.

 

I'm a convert for big engined autos. Thirsty but also very quick, so generally not stressed very often. Also expensive cars, so they usually become people "best cars". The only issue is when they hang around this price level too long, too many are not looked after and problems mount up, because costs.

 

However a bit longer those become parts cars and parts become cheap. Like the W220 s-class Mercedes.

[sierraman]

Let's not get into paranoia that every car you look at is a heap of shit. From experience sub £500 cars usually last you 6-9 months, spending that £200 more seems to get you a better car. £2000 though gets you a £650 car that's been through the block and given a valet and those paper mats they put in the footwell. I've spent nearly £2000 on a car before and it's worked well but equally it could have gone tits up.

[danthecapriman]

I think if your willing to stick to the bottom end of the market you can't really lose, if you stick to a few basic checks on the car at purchase time.

In 2006 I bought a Volvo 740 2.3 auto for £450. It had a few months test and tax and although it was a bit down at heel it was a good car.

That car was my daily until 2013. It didn't cause any trouble, never let me down and never struggled come MOT time. I did really like the car so put some effort in to clean it up, and generally bring it back up to a high spec although none of that work cost much or took the car off the road. So for 7 years motoring it was an absolute blinder! Especially so when you consider that if I'd bought a new car (I wouldn't!) after seven years the vast majority of people would either sell it on or trade it in at that sort of age. The old Volvo cost me virtually nothing compared to this. To top that, the Volvo is still going now with another owner.

 

Mind you I'm not going to say too much as I'm also more than happy to sink thousands into my classics, but if doing that makes them top notch again then it's an investment in the next 40 odd years motoring!

[Junkman]

Well, dah.

 

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/1995-PEUGEOT-405-GTX-AUTO-MoT-July-2017-495-/282146793327